Here is the recipe the incredible master cook Maggi used for my birthday dessert during the In-Country Orientation Camp. No, there are no measurements, as Maggi, like all true Greek women, cooks by taste only.
Ingredients:
Baking apples of choice (think one apple per person)
Honey
Whole Cloves
Tahini
Butter
Almond slivers
Preheat the oven to 350F (C).
Wash and core the apples, taking care to keep the bottom of the apple intact. Butter the outside of each apple lightly then stud each apple with a few whole cloves.
Fill each apple with some tahini and honey, topping with the almond slivers.
Bake until a fork or sharp knife inserts easily into the side of the apple.
Serve warm as is, or with unsweetened cream (cinnamon or vanilla ice cream would be delicious, too!). Or, cool and serve cold. (They are great for breakfast, too!)
I stumbled across this post at the Elliot.org blog about one woman's Christmas travel fiasco with American Airlines and her baggage. Apparently, not only did her luggage arrive quite late, but it was (purposefully) not mailed to the forwarding address she had left with the airline company when she reported the missing bag. To top it off, she was not compensated the checked baggage fee she demanded when she reported these errors to AA.
Elliot.org took a poll on everyone's reaction to the 'compensation' she received from AA and most readers felt that AA could have handled the situation better (AA refused to refund her bag fee on the grounds that the money was spent to send the bag back to her). Personally, I feel that if AA is not going to refund a bag fee when they lose a customer's checked bag, they should charge more to at least be sure they can pay to send the bag all the way back to the owner, instead of insisting the owner meet them part way en-route.
So, guess who has the LARGEST New Years celebration in the world? Syndey! Yep, that's right, I didn't know that either. :o) Check out the video of JUST the fireworks!
I am currently taking reservations for my couch and floor space for anyone else who wants to come experience this incredibly awesome looking celebration next year!
Since this posting is coming out on Christmas weekend, I was hoping to find some information about any December celebrations of the Aboriginal Tribes in Australia. So far, I can’t find anything. :o( No matter, this search can go on my list of things to find out while I’m living there! However, what to do for a post topic? I’ve settled on some of the documented differences of how mainstream Australian culture celebrates the Christmas holiday, instead.
Australia’s seasons mirror North America’s, which means that Christmas arrives in the middle of summer (just 4 days after their summer solstice, in fact). This in itself means that many of the quintessential Christmas/holiday activities (for me) are not possible or don’t exist at all. For instance, plants traditionally purchased or grown in the northern half of the planet (like the pine trees used for our Christmas trees or the poisonous poinsettias that adorn our coffee tables), which thrive in colder weather, are nowhere to be found in Australian holiday decorations.
Instead, check out the traditional Australian flora one might encounter at a holiday party(photo credit: http://www.anbg.gov.au/christmas/):
Christmas Tree - Western Australia
New South Whales - Christmas Bells
Victoria - Christmas Bush
South Australia & Tasmania
Queensland
Interesting that these plants don’t exhibit any of the colors those of us from the north associate with Christmas. A little more research leads me to believe that, even though the more traditional Red/Green/Silver/Gold color scheme is not prominent in the landscape during the holiday season in Australia, these colors are still used for marketing Christmas and the New Year. I suppose this is mainly due to the fact that these colors were already accepted Christmas colors before the Christmas holiday came to Australia. They probably continued the use of them for marketing purposes, however.
If Tim Minchin’s song “White Win in the Sun" is any indication (not to mention all the photos of windsurfing and reef swimming that popped up on Google when I searched for "Australia + Christmas) Australian's tend to prefer water sports to the more traditional snow play of the Northerners. Honestly, I wouldn't have had a clue it was holiday time, were it not for the Santa hats... :o)
" is any indication (not to mention all the photos of windsurfing and reef swimming that popped up on Google when I searched for "Australia + Christmas) Australian's tend to prefer water sports to the more traditional snow play of the Northerners. Honestly, I wouldn't have had a clue it was holiday time, were it not for the Santa hats... :o)